


Never Do That Again

by DepthOfMusic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 19:58:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15493533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepthOfMusic/pseuds/DepthOfMusic
Summary: Happening directly after Season 4 episode 6 .Matt knew what Keith was about to do to crash the barrier, so he decides to question Keith about it. What happens when Lance overhears their conversation ?Warning: Spoilers if you´re not up-to-date up to season 5. Some Keith and Lance intteractions and bonding (no romantic Klance or the like). Also, slightly OOC Keith (maybe, probably).





	Never Do That Again

After successfully pulling back from the battle, Lotor was locked away for further interrogation in a separate room with several guards patrolling around. Allura, Coran , Shiro and the leaders from all the joined forces were still debating heavily on how to proceed . Pidge and Hunk went to investigate Lotor's ship.  
"Lance, if you see Matt tell him to come down and help us; I can't see him in this crowd." Pidge   
said, disappearing with Hunk to the lower levels of the castle . 

Lance proceeded to go through the small crowd of a couple of pilots in search of Pidge's brother, his drinking cup still in his hand. But really, he was looking for someone else altogether. Just as he spotted the person he was actually searching for, he saw said person leaving with Matt .  
'Just my luck.' he though, following the two discreetly, curious as to what those two were planning on doing and where they were going.  
As the two stopped in a hallway near the paladin's rooms, he hid behind a boulder a few feet away, still in earshot to hear them. 

***  
Matt was feeling on edge ever since Lotor's interference during the fight. He hadn't known Keith that well, only spoke to him a couple of times really, but he knew how much he means to the paladins thanks to all the stories he's been told about the said black-haired individual. That's why he was constantly thinking about the actions Keith was willing to make. Throughout the whole process of securing Lotor and the discussion he was glancing at the black-haired male, who seemed a little bit on edge himself. The orange-haired male was thinking about how to initiate the conversation . Then he saw Keith turning away from the crowd, trying to go somewhere else; that's when he maneuvered through the crowd to him.  
"Keith, wait a bit!" He called out loud enough for Keith to hear, but quietly enough so as not to turn any attention to them.   
Keith turned around and looked at him, which Matt took as a cue to continue.  
"Uhm...could we... Talk for a moment? Not here though..."   
Keith was still for a moment.   
"Sure."   
The raven-haired male turned around and proceeded to exit the room, Matt following him. They passed several corridors , stopping in one of them.   
"So... What did you want to talk about?" Keith asked, leaning onto the wall, his hands hands crossed over his chest.  
Matt looked at the male, his expression serious .  
"I wanted to talk about what you were trying to do back there."   
"Elaborate?"   
"You know exactly what I mean Keith."  
When there was no reply, Matt continued.  
"I know that I probably don't have the right to say anything since we don't know eachother that well, but I have heard a lot about you from K-Pidge, Lance, Shiro and Hunk. From Coran and Allura as well. Okay, I'm getting off track; what I wanted to say is- what you tried to do was irresponsible of you, as well as reckless and stupid! "   
After hearing that, Keith's brows furrowed, his expression clearly one of slight annoyance.  
"The explosion would have killed thousands, if not millions. It could have worked-" Keith started, but was cut off by Matt.  
"The emphasis is on could have worked; what if it wouldn't have ? The chances of a ship breaking through their defense is minimal! "  
" We tried everything else and couldn't break through the barrier; I needed to try this!"  
"Keith, are you hearing yourself?! You wanted to 'try if it worked' at the cost of risking your life?! How l-"   
Their conversation came to a halt as a sound of something crashing to the floor was heard nearby. After a moment, Lance came out of his hiding place , his face neutral.  
Immediately after seeing Lance, Keith stood up straight , his hands by his torso, Matt looking at Lance as well. After several seconds, Lance spoke up.  
"Ah, sorry to interrupt, but Pidge said to tell Matt he should go downstairs as soon as possible and help them analyze Lotor's ship ..."   
"Thanks for telling me, I'll go there right away... When I figure out where I am..."   
"Go straight then take a right turn, go straight again and then left. There'll be a lift to downstairs." Lance explained.   
Matt thanked him, then nodded goodbye to both of them.   
After that Matt was gone, Keith not looking at Lance anymore. The silence was tense .

***  
After overhearing Matt and Keith's talk , Lance zoned out for a couple of moments. It took some time for this information to sink in. Lance snapped out of it when his cup slipped from his hand onto the floor ; luckily it was empty. The brunet steeled his face into a neutral one when stepping out, delivering the message and giving directions to Matt, who then left,silence engulfing the corridor they were in. After several seconds, Lance spoke up, his voice not sounding like it belonged to him at all.   
"Is it true?"  
Judging from how tense Keith got, he could guess the answer to that.  
"How much did you hear?"  
"Everything basically..."   
Another few second of silence ; Lance spoke up again.  
"Keith, we need to talk."  
The raven-haired male turned away from Lance , starting to go to his room .  
"I've had enough talking for today. I'll take a nap-"   
Just as he said that, two things happened- the door to his room opened, and Lance was grabbing him by his left upper arm, unexpectedly hard.  
"Now."   
Lance dragged Keith into the room, the door closing , the brunet's grip on the raven-haired male's arm not faltering.  
"What's this supposed to mean-"  
"Don't..."  
"-I just want to go to sleep, I'm tired-"   
"Don't you dare -"  
"-can't this wait until tomorrow?"  
Lance's grip on Keith's arm tightened some more; at this point it was more than uncomfortable- it hurt.  
"Cut the crap Lance, let go-"   
Keith couldn't finish his sentence; he was turned around so he was facing Lance . The next moment , Keith was leaning on the wall, his left cheek aching from the punch he received by Lance . The raven-haired male was so surprised by Lance's actions he couldn't move .  
Lance came closer to Keith, grabbing him by his collar, pushing him into the wall again.  
Wide violet eyes met with furious blue ones.  
"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE TO DISMISS THIS! " Lance roared.

His mind was reeling, a houndred thoughts per second running through his mind.  
Keith wanted to sacrifice himself .  
Keith would have nearly flown headfirst into the barrier to break it down, to save them, to save the galaxies.  
He would have done so even though the outcome most likely wouldn't be successful.  
Keith would have done that, and without saying goodbye.  
Keith could have died-   
If Lotor was one second late, Keith wouldn't be standing here anymore; he'd have died -  
He'd be dead; Lance'd have never seen him again- 

***

Keith was slowly recovering from the surprise, the pain in his left cheek and in his back grounding him somehow. He was still surprised; he and Lance bickered a lot, and there were some heated arguments, but he has never heard Lance yell like that, ever. After his outburst, Lance closed his eyes for a brief moment before opening them again, looking down, still holding him by the collar, his fist shaking. When Lance didn't speak up for half a minute, he got worried.  
"...Lance?" He asked quietly, still not moving .   
"When did you plan on telling us what you tried to do?"   
Keith didn't answer, couldn't really; his words got stuck in his throat. A wave of guilt washed over him; both him and Lance knew the answer to that- he didn't plan on telling them.   
"If Lotor didn't come- if he was late... You wanted to crash into the barrier... You would have d- you wouldn't have even said g-goodbye... We'd never see you again... I would never be able to see you again! You could be d-"   
Lance didn't finish; with each word, his sentences became more choked up and wavering, the word 'dead' not being able to come from his lips. With each word Lance said Keith's guilt grew.  
Keith tilted his head so he could see Lance's face from the side- his eyes were open, looking down, tears just streaming down his tanned cheeks, his breathing unstable. Seeing Lance so visibly shaken up and upset , crying and barely catching his breath, Keith realized the gravity of the situation and of the thing he nearly did. 

He nearly sacrificed himself for a plan that probably wouldn't have even worked;   
He nearly threw his life away.  
The paladins and Coran wouldn't have even known what happened until it was too late-   
He didn't even say goodbye-   
They would have been devastated; they cared about him, about whether he lived or not.  
They were like family to him-  
He nearly died-   
He nearly left them, just like his mother left him-  
They cared about him; Lance cared about him so much-  
He nearly broke them, broke him- 

His legs weren't holding him anymore and he was slowly sinking to the ground, taking Lance with him.

***

Lance snapped out of his haze when he heard Keith's voice for the second time .  
"-sorry..."  
He looked up again after hearing that quiet word and feeling them shifting downward, landing on the floor in seconds. Lance's eyes widened at the sight before him- Keith's left palm was covering his lips, tears streaming from his violet eyes, which were staring somewhere into the distance, unfocused. Keith kept mumbling in a choked up voice.  
"So sorry- I- sorry- I'm so sorry-"   
Keith's breathing was far from normal too.

Lance let go of Keith's shirt, snapping out of his haze immediately; he had a feeling about what was happening. He needed to act.  
Lance tried shaking Keith by the shoulders and telling him to snap out of it, which didn't work as well as he'd have hoped- Keith did stop saying sorry, but still kept saying incoherent sentences with apologies. Lance moved his hands so he was cupping Keith's face with his palms, making Keith look at him.   
"Keith, it's okay! You're still here, it's okay. "  
Keith seemed to snap out of it slowly, though he was still breathing way too fast.  
"Slowly; breathe in and out, slowly. Yeah, just like that."   
Lance was looking into Keith's eyes the whole time . After several minutes more Keith calmed down enough and was breathing normally on his own. Lance removed his hands from the raven-haired male's face, still on his knees and staying close by.  
Keith didn't look at him, but was back to at least halfway normal.

"...I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry Lance..." 

"It's okay buddy, you're still here, that's all that matters now. Let's move you to the bed; can you stand?" 

Keith stood up on shaky legs, Lance immediately helping him to the bed, taking his shoes off. Keith spoke up then.

"Lance, can we... Keep this between us?"   
"You mean this?" He gestured around the room, " I think it'll be hard to keep me punching you a secret; you'll probably be blue tomorrow; sorry about that-"   
"No, I meant... What I was going to do out there today..."   
Lance was quiet for a few seconds , contemplating.  
"Yes, under one condition."  
Keith looked at him questioningly.  
"Never try something like this again, ever. "  
"I won't."  
"Promise me Keith." Lance said seriously, looking him in the eyes.  
"I promise you , Lance." He replied , never breaking eye contact. 

After a second, Lance stretched .  
"Now that that's settled, do you want something to eat or dr- " he didn't finish his sentence, steadying Keith who was trying to stand .  
"I don't think your legs are ready yet-"  
The next sentence went unfinished as well, this time out of surprise; Keith was hugging Lance , the brunet returning the hug .

"Thank you. For today. For caring about me.For everything . "   
Lance hugged him a bit tighter after that. The hug lasted for a solid minute before they let go of eachother .  
"You reckless mullet boy... I won't let you be unsupervised again."  
"Okay."  
"With that said, I'll go and bring you some food goo and a drink. Anything else you want?"   
"No, just come back soon..."   
A small smile played on Lance's lips.  
"You got it." 

***

As Lance stepped out of Keith's room, his smile faltered just a little, the brunet still processing what just happened. He didn't dwell on it too much, hurrying along to the kitchen. Just before arriving there he spotted Matt with Pidge; their eyes met , Matt excusing himself and going to Lance.   
" Hey..."  
"Hey. Anything new regarding Lotor's ship?"  
"No, not yet. Listen, about the conversation earlier-"   
"I want to keep this between the three of us. Keith agrees too."  
Matt nodded.  
"Are you okay? Both of you?" He asked cautiously  
"Yeah; I punched away his idiocy, now we're good."  
Matt laughed a bit, then excused himself, going back downstairs where Pidge went.  
Lance hurried along , taking some good and drinks for both of them, going back to Keith's room. They two of them both sat on the bed and ate mainly in silence, exchanging only a couple of words. When they finished, Lance stood up but didn't get far; Keith was holding his wrist , looking down.  
"Don't go... the dishes can wait. Stay here tonight...please. "   
" ...Okay."   
Surprisingly, there was no awkwardness between them as they both laid in Keith's bed. The raven-haired male was fast asleep, Lance still awake ; a gentle smile was playing on his lips as he took the scene in. During his sleep, Keith entangled his feet with Lance's , and also held on to Lance's sleeve, Keith's expression peaceful.   
After looking at Keith for several minutes, Lance drifted to sleep as well, hoping that this moments with Keith will last even after tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings^^
> 
> After watching the whole season 4 with my friend in one sitting, and seeing the end of episode 6, I wrote this fic a couple of days afterward. So yeah, this fic is a bit older, as I watched S4 right when it aired. Also, S5 wasn´t out yet and I needed an outlet kinda, so this happened. I was told by my friend that Keith is kind of OOC in here, so I added the "OOC Keith " warning. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the read !


End file.
